Alice’s heart sank. O dear, how terribly strict Mr. Langley was!
“You mean because he drank?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t mean that,” he said slowly. “I believe his taking to drink as he did shows weakness, but I cannot judge Dick Cartwright too severely for that. His artistic temperament made him different. Grief was truly more terrible to him and temptation stronger than to less gifted mortals. And when he went away and deserted his little son he was hardly a responsible person.”
Alice was silent until lights twinkling in the Hollow reminded her that she had only a few minutes. “But surely, Mr. Langley, you wouldn’t have him forgotten?” she asked.
Mr. Langley realised that Alice Lorraine was a girl of some force. She was apparently intent upon obtaining justice to Dick Cartwright’s memory—which must not be.
“It’s this way, Miss Lorraine,—for I am going to tell you something in strict confidence. It is for the best that Richard Cartwright be forgotten save in the minds of a few friends. He died in a railway wreck, it is true, but he was not an innocent victim. I myself thought him to have been at first. I wrote to a friend in Chicago hoping he might secure details which might be of comfort to Cartwright’s friends and later to Reuben. But I regretted my action. My friend learned that Cartwright had turned ruffian and desperado. He was a member of a gang that killed the mail clerk and the engineer and thus wrecked the train.”
He sighed. He didn’t say that if Cartwright had not been killed he would to-day be serving life sentence in prison with others of the gang who had escaped. But he felt compelled to add: “I dislike to believe it and do not, but one of the men said that Cartwright fired the shot that killed the mail clerk. So I do not wish any attempt to revive the remembrance of Reuben’s father.”
“Of course not,” cried Alice. “I understand, and—thank you, Mr. Langley. I am sorry to have awakened sad memories for you.”
The house was in darkness but Alice did not mind that. Relieved at the absence of Miss Penny and her mother she rushed upstairs and removing her wraps threw herself on the bed, her thoughts a wild chaos. She did not know how long she had been there when she heard her name called from below.
Going down, she found Anna’s brother Frank who had lighted the lamp.